A home away from home, a place where you can relax, and an escape from all your burdens. For foreign exchange students Rahman Berdiyev, Steven Mathing, and Aref Ahmed, Stockton has become their home away from home. But it has been a totally opposite experience.

“Before I was coming here I just imagined how everything was going to be, but when I came over here everything was really different,” said Berdiyev, junior from Turkmenistan, a country in Central Asia. “It didn’t go the way I wanted it to. I think it went a more better way.”

Being prepared was something that worried not only Ahmed but his parents as well. “My parents were pretty worried about the terrorists stuff,” said Ahmed, a graduating senior from the Middle-Eastern country Yemen. Ahmed also said that his mother was worried about gang related violence. “My mom was saying you’re going to get shot.”

But Mathing, coming from Germany, said his parents had mixed feelings about leaving home for nine months. “They feel good for me that I have the possibility to come here.” Smiling, he said he came ready to get a California tan and muscles.

All three students expected their American visit to be based more like American high school movies. “I was thinking about the ‘American Pie’ movies, with the red cups,” Mathing said. Just as well Berdiyev expected to come to America, live in a large home, and have a brother who attended college.

However, as foreign exchange students, they are under strict rules. They are not allowed to drive a car or go to parties. They could, however, play sports. Their experience with sports has given them many enjoyable memories. Berdiyev tried out for the basketball team, but instead he was made the manager of the team. At the last game all the cheerleaders chanted his name so he could play, he ended up only playing for a couple of seconds but he describes it as, “the best thing in my life. It was only like 2.5 seconds but it was tight.” Another thing that he credits is basketball giving him is “deep friendships.” Both Berdiyev and Ahmed agree that they would like to have tried other sports such as football, but they either didn’t know the rules or waited too long to sign up. The sport that Ahmed picked up and really enjoyed was wrestling. He liked it because it was fun and something different to him. Mathing played soccer and considered playing other sports such as basketball and baseball but didn’t like the fact that he would have to come to practice every day until late.

Leaving is one of the things that they all look at with mixed feelings. Mathing describes his confusion about leaving as, “It’s like a different life again. Like taking a step back.” They all say their time in America was a great experience, but just as well they want to see their families.

Overall they feel they have changed due to the great amount of responsibility they were given in this country. “You’re more on your own, more responsible, certainly gets you more mature,” said Mathing. Maturity, Ahmed says, has led him to be less reliant on the people around him. This is something he said his six sisters in Yemen will really enjoy. “When I eat I clean my dishes, I do my own laundry, before that my sisters did everything.”

Berdiyev says that he looks forwards to following his father’s footsteps who was an ambassador in Austria for Turkmenistan and later got promoted to minister of foreign affairs. “He was like my role model, I was really looking forward to picking up his steps.”

Ahmed would like to pursue a career in something that he has loved since childhood, “I love flying and traveling, so I would like to go into aviation.” Mathing said that he as well would like to work in a career in which traveling would be incorporated. “I want to become something for the German government, like something where you travel a lot, and use languages.”

One thing is for sure, each one is going to be missed greatly by those who got to know them best, their fellow students and their teachers. Berdiyev’s good friend David Martinez, senior, said about missing him, “Yup, that’s my boy right there, that’s my boy from Turkmenistan.” Toina Vickers, Aref’s English teacher, said that he brings “a joy to the classroom.” Andrew Walters, Mathing’s math and MESA teacher said, “Besides all the slang, he’ll take a different understanding about education with him.”